The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1887-03-31
Where Labor Must Look for Help.


from political action.
It has ignored such action, not
withstanding all the ills OF which
labor complains. have political
origin. and all the permanent re-
dress or relief it asks. or can hope
for, must come through political
channels. When times were good .
and labor was prosperous, labor or
were few, for none were .
needed.
Hard times. enforced idleness. pow
erty, want. and misery IL Il rule, are
the offspring, or the fruit OF unjust
legislation, which, as intended, en-
riches the few at the expense Of the
many.
For the past quarter Of century.
state and national governments
have been administered in the in
terest Of capital, individual or cor
porate.
Laws are not made for the pro-
lection OF labor, or legitimate enter
prise.
No man will pretend to point to a
law enacted during the past twenty
five years that has, or was intended.
to effect favorably, the laboring
people Of this country.
A free homestead law was passed,
but the intention and effect OF the
law was to double and quadruple
the value Of railroad lands ut the
expense OF the settlers.
Our so-called protection laws
are no barrier against the free il
flux Of pauper labor from the old
world, and only serves to protect
capital by compelling consumers to
pay more for the necessaries Of life
than they would otherwise have to,
and by compelling American labor.
ers In America to compete with the
pauper wages Of the old world.
Legislation, or refusal to legislate,
permits transportation companies
to rob producers to such an extent
that they cannot afford to pay liv-
ing wages to labor.
Legislation authorizes money cor
l-%--~~~ - >--~--
pOrations to establish the val
ne OF money by giving them
control over its volume or amount,
thereby enabling them to double or
quadruple the value of the interest
bearing obligations they hold. and
by compelling men to part with
more and more of the products Of
labor to pay principal or interest
on public or private debts.
The s5O,OOO,OOO, of annual interest
on the public debt with the reduced
volume Of currency in the hands OF
the people, now requires the sale OF
more Of the products OF labor for
its payment than when the annual
interest was three times as much,
or $l5O.OOO,OOO.
i Legislation in many OF the states
makes il a crime for laboring man
to travel on its public roads in
search Of employment unless he Is
l"well heeled' with the means to pay
his current expenses,
4 Legislation in such states makes
II crime for him to ask the hos
pitality OF his brother laborers
puts him in the penitentiary fol
such offences, and sells his labor to
corporate capital TO be put in com
petition with laborers still out Of
prison.
Legislation makes it Il crime &c
. play "seven up for dime. bat au.
thorizes boards OF trade to gamble
j. in the products OF labor, robbing tho
consumer in extortionate prices
and the producer in prices totally
inadequate to the cost of production
Not one Of the hardships OF which
labor Justly complains, exist iii I'm,
society on the face Of the globe
except those that are cursed by thu
laws and economic systems hande'
down from the feudal robbers o
, the dark ages. For u thousans
, years the ro5ber class has ruled tn
. labor class.
II The conditions Of millionaire ant
, pauper are not natural. They ar
, the fungus growth OF wicked sys
tens and Of unjust laws and the onl
. way for labor to cmancipata itself
to unite and vote for the overtime,
| of the system that has produce
them.
/ We do not ask for Il divide" b:
that each may enjoy the product G
| his own labor. The "other fellows
| for thousand years have divide
1.-THE earnings II labor, and now it |
| time Tor labor to protest against
syurther "divide" of its earnings.
i All cannot be accomplished IL
once. but labor should unite and 6
forward step by step in politica
warfare. It must agitate and edu
cate It's laborers until they ar
] strong enough to wrcst the govern
ment from the hands OF their OF
! pressors, and administer for til
purposes for which it was establish
ed, the public good and the geners
, welfare OF the millions, instead I
7 the millionaires.
} Political inaction, and disunio
, on the part Of the toilers IL til
safeguard and bnlwark OF capita